The University of Kerala (KU) has decided to suspend Vinod Chandra S.S., the Director of its Computer Centre, for serious lapses and dereliction of his responsibilities which allegedly paved way for the moderation controversy.
The decision was taken by the Syndicate which met here on Friday to deliberate upon the findings of the inquiry committees that had been constituted to probe the unauthorised hike in moderation marks in certain career-related programmes. While attributing the controversy to technical flaws in the tabulation software, the university has concluded that no attempts had been made on purpose to tamper with the marks.
The inquiry panels, one led by the Pro Vice Chancellor P.P. Ajayakumar and the other, an expert committee led by Syndicate member K.G. Gopchandran respectively, found glaring security flaws in the software which had remained unrectified, despite numerous instructions being issued to the Computer Centre on various occasions since 2010.
According to Vice Chancellor V.P. Mahadevan Pillai, the marks secured by 727 students in 12 examinations were found to have undergone changes, owing to a missing code in the moderation module of the software. While the university has found 390 students to have downloaded their updated mark lists, orders will be issued to cancel them and revert the changes that crept into the database.
The university also found the Computer Centre to have failed in its duty in the maintenance of login credentials and passwords. While there existed only 39 employees in the examination sections, as many as 68 passwords were found to be in circulation.
Effective mechanism
Dr. Vinod Chandra has also been charged for his lapse in establishing an effective mechanism to ensure receipt of fees that were paid by students for various services through the Janasevana Kendram. The varsity is believed to have incurred a massive loss, estimated to run to crores of rupees, through the insecure payment system.
The university has decided to rope the services of C-DAC to conduct a security audit of the software and implement a multi-layered security system that will comprise biometric identification features.
Meanwhile, the District Crime Branch has sought permission to register a case and continue its probe with detailed forensic analysis.
